Chapter 5: The Diner

On Saturday at noon, the Lakeshore Diner was packed with the lunch crowd.

Angie was carrying four plates up her left arm.

She had come in because she wanted to.

The doctor had said to keep doing what she could, and what she could do was carry plates.

The bell over the door rang.

Delaney Frost walked in wearing a white wool coat, with four girls in matching boots behind her.

She looked around the diner.

"Oh my God, it's adorable," she said, loud enough for the booths to hear. "This is where she works?"

Angie set the plates down in front of the regulars at table six.

"Sit anywhere," she said.

"I will."

The girls took the big corner booth and spread out.

One of them already had her phone up.

Delaney slid in, took off her gloves one finger at a time, and smiled at Angie.

"Coffee for everyone," she said. "And a menu. I'd love to see what a place like this charges."

Angie brought the coffees on a tray.

She set each cup down without spilling a drop.

"You've lost weight," Delaney said, looking her over. "It's sad. Colin's so worried about you. He really isn't sleeping."

"Is that right?"

"He tells me everything. How you used to steal his things. How you'd cry at the dinner table so your father would feel sorry for you."

The girl with the phone giggled.

"I was six," Angie said.

"You were seventeen when you cried about the car."

"That was the day I found out my dad had sold it. I wasn't crying for sympathy."

"Whatever you say."

Three of the regulars at the counter had stopped eating.

Clover stood very still behind the register with a rag in her fist.

Delaney raised her voice, just a little.

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